Mike's Gallery

We jump out of bed and get our turnouts on. Rob yells "lets go to work."

As we make our way down Skyline to the call, we can smell the smoke coming from the fire. We drive up and see flames about 10 feet long lapping up through the front window and up into the eves of the roof.

I get out pull a 2 1/2" smoothbore line as Scott gives his size up. Rob helps me flake out the line. Engine 64 is right behind and helps out with establishing a water supply.

Meanwhile I am knock down the fire at the front. Entry is slightly delayed as I put out the flames burning the front eve and doorway. Scott kicks the door in and then sees the first body. An elderly man, burned to death.

Engine 38 makes their way in as we fight the fire to do a primary search. Then a few minutes later they come out with a second body, not burned as badly. An elderly woman, found in her bed unconscious. Unfortunately the two residents perish.

The residents appear to have not had a smoke detector, something that could have gave them a better chance to survive.

After hours of investigation, we overhaul the structure. 4 hours later, engines begin to leave. We end up leaving last. First in, last out. 0530, the sky is getting bright and we clear the scene as the board up company comes to close up the house.

To make matters worse, we head down to central station to refuel. As we get ready to leave after putting in 39 gallons of fuel, the transmission goes out on our engine. Now stuck in the middle of El Camino Real, Scott and I push the engine back to the station 50 yards away. Another half hour to an hour to change over to the reserve rig E151. We finally get back at 0700.

Needless to say, I'm tired. But it was a worthy opponent.

The news release here.